SPOTLIGHT

David E. Paterson, AfriGeneas Slave Research
Forum manager, was born in Scotland, UK, grew up in Seattle, WA, and earned a BA in History from University of Oregon before joining the U.S. Navy in 1975. Although an avid reader as a child, David became so busy with his seagoing career that he did not read a complete book for fifteen years. His passion for history reawakened in 1988 while he explored the antebellum records in the basement of the Upson County
courthouse. Now Davidís idea of fun and relaxation is reading a book or spending 12-hour days researching at the National Archives.
Read his profile . . .

September 2005

Eric
Thomas

Eric
Thomas manages 50 AfriGeneas mailing lists on Yahoo. He manages 65 mailing lists on
the AfriGeneas server. He manages the main mailing list at MsState.edu. He
keeps the meeting rooms and chat center functioning and user friendly. He is
a broad shoulder to lean on. He is the mechanic under the hood keeping the
AfriGeneas engine running smoothly.
Call him Eric . . . ET . . . Admin Assistant . . . The Help Desk. Eric Thomas answers to all of those
names, often concurrently. His arm is easy to twist and consistently remains twisted.
Read his profile . . .

August 2005

Bennie
L. Phifer III

Bennie
Phifer's genealogical journey began long before he started his research in
1993. It began as the result of his familyís yearly two-week trip to Arkadelphia,
Clark County, Arkansas to visit his fatherís side of the family.
Bennie remembers that he had nothing but fond memories of meeting family members and
his experiences while visiting. However, he recalls, the same relatives never visited
his family in Troy, Ohio. He wanted to know more about his Arkansas
relatives so he began his genealogical quest to find out more about them and their lives.
Read his profile . . .

July 2005

Wanda
Bennett

One day,
Wanda Bennett went to
a presentation at work and heard two speakers talking about their
genealogical
research. One said she started because she wanted to do a simple book for her parents' 50th wedding
anniversary but 25 years later she was still researching. She made it
sound so interesting that Wanda thought she would try it. She did and
she got
hooked! Later, at a meeting of the
Indiana African American Genealogy Group, someone mentioned how useful
obituaries were for African American research and Wanda knew she'd
discovered her mission. She began transcribing obituaries from
newspapers in Indiana and Kentucky and placing them online in 1999. And
she hasn't stopped since. Read
her profile . . .

October 2004

Ruth
Eleanor
Stubblefield

National Family History Month
is an appropriate month to highlight the four year travel adventure that
resulted in: a "Century Certificate" from the Walker County Genealogical
Society, recognizing her familyís century- plus existence in Walker
County, Texas; a compiled index, Walker County Texas, Black Cemeteries;
and a six generation documented history of the Walker County, Texas
Stubblefields, Thru My Eyes. Read
her profile . . .

June 2004

Denise
Oliver-Velez

For years, Denise Oliver-Velez
had been collecting stories from relatives and gathering up old
photos and news clippings. Her interest in family history started early. She
describes herself as "the nosey child of the family who asked a million questions of
elders
and who pored over old photograph albums and memorabilia." But
even though the interest was always there,
she never actually attempted to
do formal research on her own family. That is, until a few years ago when
she first visited AfriGeneas, found a community of interest, and decided to
stay a while. . . . Since then she has helped hundreds of researchers to
get started with or to advance their research and has personally
posted more than 2000 messages on the
Getting Started (formerly Beginners) Forum as well as
other boards. Read
her profile . . .